Oldham match

Couldn’t fault the effort of the lads but give away a few preventable tries and just the sheer size difference in the pack meant we struggled to slow the ruck down enough. We had a better 2nd half, the 2 tries were well created and we didn’t throw the towel in and kept going. To compete against the Oldhams and Keighley’s we need to be able to put our best 17 out and when you’ve got a centre in the 2nd row, full back at  centre and half back at full back it tells a story about the injuries we have. Unfortunately Muzza in his interview said it looks like Burnsy has broken ribs and Ceiran a fractured shoulder. Don’t know what we’ve done to deserve so many injuries so early in the season but I think that’s 11 out of contention now. With so many long term injuries the next 2 to 3 months are going to be a real challenge. Best wishes to both Jordan and Ceiran, hopefully for their sake the injuries aren’t as bad as first thought. UTT

Oldham pack were very good...and unfortunately for the rest, I think they will get better....is the squad sustainable...we will see

Bradley definitely town's best and sammut needs to be back in halves, hope Murray can get some more players in, 4/5 weeks of SL now so they bound to be some young players looking for games. A big prop would help.

1 hour ago, IanMac said:

Couldn’t fault the effort of the lads but give away a few preventable tries and just the sheer size difference in the pack meant we struggled to slow the ruck down enough. We had a better 2nd half, the 2 tries were well created and we didn’t throw the towel in and kept going. To compete against the Oldhams and Keighley’s we need to be able to put our best 17 out and when you’ve got a centre in the 2nd row, full back at  centre and half back at full back it tells a story about the injuries we have. Unfortunately Muzza in his interview said it looks like Burnsy has broken ribs and Ceiran a fractured shoulder. Don’t know what we’ve done to deserve so many injuries so early in the season but I think that’s 11 out of contention now. With so many long term injuries the next 2 to 3 months are going to be a real challenge. Best wishes to both Jordan and Ceiran, hopefully for their sake the injuries aren’t as bad as first thought. UTT

You just said everything I was going to say. It was like a Cruiserweight against a proper heavyweight and you'd bet on the heavyweight for a comfortable win every time. Disappointed but not disheartened , it's pure bad luck to have so many injuries when our pre-season had built up nicely.  Not looking good for next week to even field a team nevermind win!

Thought we’d struggle but disappointing how we capitulated so quickly tbh . They were big and strong no doubt about it but they didn’t really cut us to shreds from deep . We  really struggled to defend our line and basically they just shoved us aside for a few tries with some pretty soft defence tbh . First three tries came from three penalties and that was pretty much that and we were out of it  before we were in it . Second half we competed better . Injuries hurt with Sammut wasted at fullback and Burns in the centre , while Bradley had a strong game I thought .  Some of our basics are still poor , passing being the most obvious . It really is awful at times 

Yesterday was a tough watch. Oldham played straightforward rugby very well and their bigger better players made a big difference. They made good yards, kicked well and their line speed and tackling was good. A different referee might have pinged them a lot more as he was as bizarre as they come for how and when he decided to blow for pens. We were off side and not square in tackles, but he wasn't consistent when he decided to blow, and what he penalised us for he often let Oldham away with. Oldham targeted our weakest defender and we really struggled to stop them in our own 15m. Our line defense was again very poor.

For us despite the injuries and running out of players, players playing out of position etc I couldn't fault the effort from the lads. Bradley was well deserved MOM. Lets hope we can scrape a team together for next week as our injury situation is dire already. We will really miss Walker and Burns so fingers crossed they aren't as bad as feared. UTT.

Set restarts keep the game flowing I understand that but they’re also quite annoying as at times they are just no punishment . Did people see that we had a set where he gave us 3 restarts in 4 tackles . I mean what’s the use of that and how is it a punishment for foul or cynical play ? And I thought that was a sin bin anyway . Also when you’re there at times you totally miss them . Generally that ref yesterday just looked like he’d seen all the top refs on telly and tried to look like one in all his mannerisms and calls … but was way off really 

How did Lapori and Hammond play?

Oldham were obviously superior to us for most of the game, they didn’t need the ref to piggy back them up the field with some baffling pens, you knew they were coming. Tough opener, but I don’t think we helped ourselves by playing one of the leagues best full backs and stand off out of position. Gutted about the new injuries, looks like we will be without them for a few weeks, Im sure we’ve been cursed UTT

14 minutes ago, Unicorn 106 said:

Oldham were obviously superior to us for most of the game, they didn’t need the ref to piggy back them up the field with some baffling pens, you knew they were coming. Tough opener, but I don’t think we helped ourselves by playing one of the leagues best full backs and stand off out of position. Gutted about the new injuries, looks like we will be without them for a few weeks, Im sure we’ve been cursed UTT

Oddly enough we, Oldham, did the same and it seemed to work a treat. Craven, standoff at full back and Astley, full back at stand off. 

12 minutes ago, The Art of Hand and Foot said:

Oddly enough we, Oldham, did the same and it seemed to work a treat. Craven, standoff at full back and Astley, full back at stand off. 

Thought Astley was very good yesterday sadly

I just think playing your best half at fullback and one of the best fullbacks in the league at centre is ridiculous and backfired yesterday. Why you would want sammut running a ball back against a chasing defence on his own is beyond me. We severely lacked grunt yesterday, and the bench didn’t improve us at all, if Jack Stevenson is out and I’m assuming malik was injured we need to get in that phone to Cain Barnes and get him back down, there’s to much pressure on Jake to be the only one in the pack to have a bit of spark and creativity 

Agree with a lot what as been said already, but for me it's not size it's the speed we play at ,slow running forwards, slow play the ball's with little support, town need to start getting on the front foot before they play sideways,also need to kick better on the last tackle. But hopefully we want be playing sides of championship level every week. 

1 hour ago, Town utd said:

Agree with a lot what as been said already, but for me it's not size it's the speed we play at ,slow running forwards, slow play the ball's with little support, town need to start getting on the front foot before they play sideways,also need to kick better on the last tackle. But hopefully we want be playing sides of championship level every week. 

 

I agree, we were tapping the ball after a kick to touch and we were lined up so deep that the receiver of the ball was struggling to make it to the play the ball mark, so one tackle down and zero metres made. Surely you need a big drive and quick play the ball to get a fast defensive line on the back foot. And when you are playing against a bigger team on your goal line why do we wait for them to come to us? We were always taught to get at least a couple of yards off the line as quickly as possible.  It's madness to me our line speed in our own ten metre as it seems so easy to score against us.

Anyway I hope we can play somebody else at full back as my heart can't take Sammut at FB any more

1 hour ago, The Voodooguru said:

I agree, we were tapping the ball after a kick to touch and we were lined up so deep that the receiver of the ball was struggling to make it to the play the ball mark, so one tackle down and zero metres made. Surely you need a big drive and quick play the ball to get a fast defensive line on the back foot. And when you are playing against a bigger team on your goal line why do we wait for them to come to us? We were always taught to get at least a couple of yards off the line as quickly as possible.  It's madness to me our line speed in our own ten metre as it seems so easy to score against us.

Anyway I hope we can play somebody else at full back as my heart can't take Sammut at FB any more

Me either, some of his passes after he caught the ball were well stressful

Strange decisions from ref at times but Plenty of effort, still poor goal line defence let's us down and our ruck speed is awful. Really desperate for a big middle unit that can cause problems if we are to at least compete

7 hours ago, Mark said:

How did Lapori and Hammond play?

Both done ok considering they were up against ex super league players

7 hours ago, Mark said:

How did Lapori and Hammond play?

They both had a good game but they were up against ex super league players and a few from the championship, Town gave away a tries and were pinned back with penalties. I do not know why we played Sammut at full back and Jordan burns in the centres but i am not the coach and thats the way he wanted to play.. 

Sounds like a tough weekend for you guys, was always going to be hard against the leagues big spenders. Hopefully the injuries you picked up aren't too bad! 

16 hours ago, Town utd said:

Agree with a lot what as been said already, but for me it's not size it's the speed we play at ,slow running forwards, slow play the ball's with little support, town need to start getting on the front foot before they play sideways,also need to kick better on the last tackle. But hopefully we want be playing sides of championship level every week. 

 

Cause and effect, Unfortunately it's size that is the issue, not big enough to dominate = slow ruck speed 

1 hour ago, Neutralfan7 said:

Sounds like a tough weekend for you guys, was always going to be hard against the leagues big spenders. Hopefully the injuries you picked up aren't too bad! 

Hearing they are both long term injuries, but nothing confirmed from the club yet so fingers crossed

You don't have to be big to hit onto the ball at speed and then fight to play the ball quick,hepi and oggie were the best runners of the ball I've seen. Try line defence can move up quick as well.

2 hours ago, Town utd said:

You don't have to be big to hit onto the ball at speed and then fight to play the ball quick,hepi and oggie were the best runners of the ball I've seen. Try line defence can move up quick as well.

They were and Stephenson is a similar player but a. he wasn't playing and b. look at who Hepi and Oggy were playing with. Not knocking them at all , they were fantastic players but if you've got Jimmy and Buck getting you rolling it makes the job a lot easier. Line speed is a factor of course but you can move up as fast as you like but if you can't dominate a bigger player they'll win the collision and get a quicker PTB.

If you think a big pack or in fact size across the team isn't important you've forgotten how Thorman's strategy failed spectularly.

The new Oldham owners highlighted that last season we were probably the smallest team in the division and that they’d specifically addressed that this season to the extent that we’re probably the biggest team (it obviously helps when you’ve had a big cash injection). Good luck for the rest of the season!

5 hours ago, Town utd said:

You don't have to be big to hit onto the ball at speed and then fight to play the ball quick,hepi and oggie were the best runners of the ball I've seen. Try line defence can move up quick as well.

They were able to run off a few big lads though

Agree,but town have big forwards, its the pace lads run at with no support,  and I think we can play the ball miles quicker especially with the rules you can't lay on at play the ball.

We were basically up against a championship team, the pack especially, 2 or 3 of them were playing SL recently. They are also very well coached with excellent discipline, their first mistake was about 32 minutes in. I thought before the game we would be lucky to get within 30 if them, and they would be going all season unbeaten. Now I`m certain they will.